New campaign to catch kids before they drop out

The Equitable Education Fund ( EEF ) is collaborating with 11 government organizations to lower the number of children who are exempt from the educational system to as low as 200, 000 in five years. Last year that number was over 1 million.

After the government on Tuesday acknowledged the plan and assigned 11 different organizations to take action, according to the EEF’s proposal, EEF managing chairman Kraiyos Patrawart said all relevant parties are pushing the” Thailand Zero Dropout” plan ahead.

To accomplish the goal, the EEF is collaborating with 11 agencies, including the Education Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Digital Economy and Society Ministry, and the Social Development and Human Security Ministry. The second meeting will take place on June 14.

Mr. Kraiyos stated that since the Covid- 19 crisis broke out, Thailand’s number of children who are excluded from the educational system and those who are at risk of dropping out of school has been rising globally over the past few years.

According to him, hundreds of thousands of households are very likely to be in the poverty trap because there is a chance that the children of these households wo n’t get a higher education than their parents did for another generation.

Thailand has become a world with fewer than 500, 000 births annually, he said, adding that the state may remain in the middle-income trap for some time.

There are approximately 11 million students in all educational levels, from kindergarten to high school, according to the Education Data Center ( EDC ).

Meanwhile, data from the Interior Ministry’s Bureau of Registration Administration ( Bora ) shows there were 1.02 million children who were not in the education system last year.

These kids included younger children who did not attend daycare school or primary school, those who started class later than usual, those who left mid-semester, and those who had no access to education.

Because it is difficult for all students to get an education outside of the classroom, Mr. Kraiyos said,” Thailand’s learning sector’s next milestone is to help children outside the educational system.” The Zero Dropout job did not immediately return all students to school, but it will offer them other ways to get an education and create freely in a way that supports their life goals.